Control
by ookami desu
Summary: I clenched my fists and was only 0.23 seconds away from lunging at them when Mai grabbed my hand and placed her lips next to the shell of my ear. "Easy there, tiger," she whispered. !Drabble. Two-shot. MaiNao!
1. Chapter 1

**Disclaimer:** I do not own Mai HiME in any way, shape, or form.

Sorry for disppearing on you guys for so long! RL has taken over and I just haven't had the time/motivation to write as of late. Until further notice, updates will be sporadic and random.

I have recently found myself as a shipper of MaiNao, so when I was prompted to write something, this pairing came to mind. ^-^;

Try to keep in mind that Mai and Nao are college-aged in this story, and they no longer possess their HiME powers.

* * *

I caught whispers from a group of immature-looking boys as they passed our table. Only a few lines were exchanged in the 3 seconds it took for them to disappear from my sight, but I can still hear them perfectly fine because the bastards chose to sit in the booth right behind us.

"You're glaring at your food, Nao. Does it taste that bad?" Mai asked, fork pointing at me.

"It's fine. It taste like food," I replied curtly. I couldn't force myself to stop listening in on their conversation, even though it pissed me off by the minute.

"Now you're stabbing at it," she informed.

Realizing that Mai was right, I relinquished the fork I was using and tossed it onto the table. "Are you seriously deaf? Do you not hear the conversation behind me?"

Mai blinked at me, looking clueless. I was about to tell her what they were saying, but she cut me off before I could start. "Is that what you're pissed about? Really? That's it?"

"That's it?!" I practically yelled with disbelief. "They were objectifying you!"

She gave a small shrug and popped some rice into her mouth, chewing it slowly before swallowing. "I know. I'm not stupid, Nao. But it's not like I can do anything to stop it."

"You're seriously okay with it?" I asked, anger subsiding only to make room for the intense amount of incredulity that I was feeling.

"I never said I was okay with it, but it also hasn't reached a point where I feel the need to do anything about it," she replied blankly as she continued to eat.

I picked up my fork and began working through my meal, eating slightly faster than I normally do. Just because Mai didn't want to make an issue out of this doesn't mean I won't. And if I had to listen to one more comment about how they want to get a taste of that bodacious rack, I'm going to murder somebody with the fork I'm holding.

"Careful," Mai warned, seeing the speed I was eating in. "The food's not going to go anywhere."

"Yeah," I replied, taking another bite of the chicken I ordered. "But I want to... ASAP. Maybe you can stay calm about this, but I can't."

She replied to my comment with a calm smile before finishing the last of her vegetables. As soon as I saw her empty plate, I waved my hand for the check, not caring that I only ate half of my dinner. When the waitress came, I threw a few bills her way, told her to keep the change, and rushed out of the restaurant with Mai.

"You know, I do think it's kind of cute that you're so protective of me," Mai started, "but let's not bolt out of a restaurant again."

"I let you finish your food," I replied defensively.

"But I wanted dessert," she sighed.

"We'll go somewhere else. I saw a froyo place nearby. We can go there."

Before Mai could answer me, we were rudely interrupted by a few familiar voices. "Oi oi, you girls alone tonight? Wanna hang out with us?"

I clenched my fists and was only 0.23 seconds away from lunging at them when Mai grabbed my hand and placed her lips next to the shell of my ear. "Easy there, tiger," she whispered.

I instantly froze on the spot, but did not bother taking my eyes off of the prey. Instead of talking, I chose to ascertain the situation, forming a rough plan in my head on how I would beat the crap of them. She moved slightly away from me so that she could address them, but kept her hand on mine as she spoke.

"Thanks for asking, but we'll decline the invitation," she replied with an empty smile.

How she could still smile at them, I will never know, even if it was empty. It took all of my self-control, plus her, to not jump in their faces the second they decided to approach us.

"Aw, come on. We're really nice guys and we're told that we're fun to be around," another one tried.

"Ah, as you can tell, my friend is not in a very good mood right now, so I'm afraid we really will have to decline," she replied.

It might've sounded nice to their ears, but I could tell that even Mai was getting impatient with them. The very polite way she worded her sentence told me so.

"Then all the more reason to hang out with us, right? We can all do something fun together and help make her feel better," he pestered.

"What kind of fun thing, I'm-gonna-fuck-her-so-hard-her-jugs-are-gonna-pop- san?" Mai questioned, her face showing no embarrassment at the words she uttered, as if she was just asking about the weather.

I, on the other hand, felt my jaw drop. Literally, my jaw dropped to the ground and I was only able to recover from that when she lightly squeezed my hand. Realizing that I let my guard down, I replaced my shocked expression with the glare I had on earlier and continued to watch them intently.

The boys stood there in shock. They must've thought we were deaf; that we couldn't hear a word of their disgusting discussion. I couldn't help but do a small victory dance in my head when I saw the looks on their faces... which were still on their face.

"What kind of fun thing?" Mai pressed, her voice slowly getting colder.

"Look," someone finally said. "We're really sorry we said that stuff about you. We were just... talking, that's all. Didn't mean any harm. But we really are nice guys if you give us a chance."

"Perhaps I'm not making myself clear," Mai said as she loosened her grip on me.

Then she did something that I completely did not expect. She grabbed me by the back of my head and pulled my face close to hers. In the very brief second that she stopped to look me in the eyes, I saw a glint of mischief; then, not a second later, I was given a very, very hungry kiss. One that was usually reserved for the bedroom... for obvious reasons.

When we parted, I turned my vision to her eyes, and noticed that they were actually on the boys to see their reaction. A small smirk formed into my lips as it was my turn to take the stage now.

"The only reason you three are still standing around with all your limbs attached," I started as my eyes were still on Mai, "is because my girlfriend stopped me." I slowly turned my vision to them, noticing that they were still dumbfounded. I took a step forward and rolled my shoulders to loosen any muscles in that area. "But she just gave me the go ahead, so I'll be enjoying my new toys for the night," I finished as I put on my brass knuckles.

When they didn't look scared, I thought it was because they were confident in their fighting skills, but it turns out, they just didn't think a girl could win. It seemed like they were relying on the power of numbers and the fact that they were stronger than me as a basis for concluding the victor of this match.

But they were proven wrong. So very wrong.

Because by the end of the night, they were all on the ground, groaning in pain as they clutched onto their balls.

"I think you overdid it," Mai noted as she watched them grovel.

"If I had a knuckle blade, I would have castrated them," I replied. "I consider this light."

"I think you broke someone's ribs... not sure which though."

"Should I even it out then? They could all have broken ribs together."

"No, it's okay. I still want dessert and I'm pretty sure the place is going to close if we don't hurry."

"Are you sure? It'll only take a minute."

"Nao," she said in that voice of hers that meant 'playtime is over'.

"Tch. Fine," I replied, pocketing the brass knuckles as I walked towards her. I grabbed her hand and laced my fingers between hers, then whispered into her ear, "But that kiss you gave me earlier... I'm not going to forget about that tonight. Just a forewarning, _tiger_."

* * *

**A/N****:** Rather than claws, I think Nao will enjoy having knuckle blades, but those things are lethal... especially with her using them. Therefore, I decided to just give her brass knuckles. I very much see her as someone who got into a lot of street fights given the way she spent her HiME years. A good number of people fell victim to her shenanigans and given how pissed those people were, I imagine they attempted to get their revenge, which is where she gained her street fighting creds.

Anyway, read & review please. Questions? Comments? Concerns? Thoughts? Leave me a note. Thanks!


	2. Chapter 2

**Disclaimer:** I do not own Mai HiME in any way, shape, or form.

Thanks to everyone who took the time to review the first chapter. The second installment for this two-shot is here, which concludes this piece. Don't worry, guys. I plan to have more oneshots/shorts about this couple in this universe. A part of me wants to do for MaiNao in this fandom as RadiantBeam did Vivio/Lutecia in MGLN. So let's hope the interest stays.

I'm also currently working on another oneshot... which is sort of like an epilogue (but not really) for ChiexAoi in IBYR-verse. Watch out, fanfiction world, ookamidesu is back!

Oh - and in case anyone is wondering, _Knight Natsuki_ is currently put on hiatus, as I am not so interested in writing for ShizNat at the moment. I feel other pairings are in dire need of more attention. xD

* * *

"You enjoy it, don't you?" I asked, reflexively wrapping my arm tighter around her when she snuggled into me.

"Yeah, you're really warm. I'm not very good at retaining heat, so I get cold easily when I'm naked," Mai replied, drawing random patterns onto my bare chest with her finger.

"Not that," I deadpanned.

"No?" Mai asked in faux cluelessness. "Well, if you're talking about the sex, of course I enjoy _that_. You really know how-"

"Not that either," I replied indignantly. "Of course I know you enjoy sex with me. That's not what I'm talking about."

"Oh? Then what is it?" Mai asked as she propped up slightly to look me in the eyes.

I shifted slowly to make myself comfortable as we turned face to face on the bed. "At the restaurant today, when the guys approached us and I was about to jump them, you stopped me. You like showing that you have control over me, don't you?"

"Of course. I'm very proud of the fact that I was able to tame you."

"I'm not an animal, you know," I said, slightly offended at her choice of words.

"You're not... but you know what I mean," Mai replied apologetically. "You didn't like me at all during the HiME carnival. And even after the Obsidian Lord was defeated, you still had reservations about trusting people, despite how much they tried to help you."

"Tch, they were all pretentious assholes. They didn't actually care, they just wanted to look like they did," I murmured.

Mai chuckled at the memory. "Yeah, you drove them away pretty easily. But my point still stands. Earning your trust was difficult, especially since you thought of me as some goody two-shoes who worked way too hard for the sake of my brother."

"You were damn persistent though, woman. I hated you before, and then I hated you with a passion after. You just wouldn't leave me alone. I still don't know how you wormed your way into my life like this," I said, turning to face the ceiling.

"It was Natsuki that helped me figure it out, you know? She pointed out that you needed proof that someone will stay with you through thick and thin; that you didn't need someone who would just leave you after a few bumps in the road. And that was when it clicked. You drove people away because you knew that they wouldn't stick around when things got difficult. There was no point opening up to someone who wasn't going to stay in your life very long."

I inched closer to Mai and gathered her into my arms. When she held me back, I buried my face into the crook of her neck and inhaled deeply, taking in her scent. "People always come and go, Mai. If you really mean that little to them, then they should mean equally little to you. And people who don't mean much to me don't deserve to know who I am."

"I understand," she replied, petting me affectionately. "I understand it so well. After I figured it out, I just couldn't leave you alone. I wanted to prove to you that I'm not one of those people. I'll stay with you, through the good and the bad. When you need to be held or when you need someone to hold, I'll be right here, at arms-length for you."

"I know," I replied, my voice muffled. "You've already proven yourself to me. You've given me everything you are, and so I will reciprocate and give you everything that I am." I moved my head out of it's comfortable spot to look into Mai's eyes. "I give you control over me because I know you won't abuse that power, but make no mistake. I'm not whipped. I won't do everything you tell me to do unquestioningly."

"Well," Mai sighed in faux disappointment, "That's a shame. But I guess I'll take what I can get."

"I'm surprised that mutt helped you help me," I said, changing the subject.

"Natsuki isn't as bad as you're making her out to be. She has a warm heart too, you know, but she's just a little more tsundere than you."

"I'm not a tsundere," I deadpanned.

"No," Mai replied, a smirk forming on her lips. "Of course not. You're a mischievous troublemaker."

"Hey now," I retorted. "My troublemaking days are over."

"Are they really? I seem to recall someone getting into a fight with a few boys earlier tonight," Mai returned, placing a contemplative finger on her chin.

"That can barely be considered a fight. All they did was flail around in panic. Besides, I couldn't let them get away with all that crap they were saying. Nobody, and I mean nobody, besides me is allowed to touch you that way."

"Getting possessive there, aren't you?" Mai teased, giving me a chaste kiss.

"So what if I am? You're mine," I replied seriously.

I could tell she was about to tease me until she saw the seriousness in my eyes. "I'm yours," she confirmed with a smile. "And I will always be yours." She placed her head onto my chest and allowed me to wrap my arms around her.

I'm happy, I thought to myself. I'm lucky to have someone like Mai in my life. Before she stepped in, everything was a mess. Everything that happened with mama, with the carnival, and even post-carnival was a wreck. But Mai walked into my life and she helped fix it up. She helped me deal with my demons and helped me straighten my life out. Now, I have a direction. I'm in college. I live in an apartment with her. And I'm going to make her happy.

"Ne, Nao?" she said sleepily.

"Hm?"

"Tomorrow, we need to go grocery shopping."

"What? We just went two days ago!" I complained.

"Mikoto visited yesterday, remember?"

I let out a low growl without even realizing it. "That thing eats way too much. You need to cut her diet down before her metabolism stops working from all the overeating she does."

"Be nice," Mai giggled. "She's a growing girl."

"In case you missed it, Mikoto and I_ are the same age_," I emphasized the last part of my sentence.

"That doesn't change the fact that we need to get more food," she stated with finality.

"Fine," I said as I sighed loudly. "But we still have food, right? We can wait til the weekend to food shop."

"Mm, did you forget? Tomorrow is karaoke night at our place. I invited the whole gang over."

"The...whole...gang?" I gulped. "Does that include mutt and her crazy girlfriend?"

"Nao," Mai reprimanded. "Shizuru isn't crazy. She was just heavily affected by the HiME star. Are you still holding that grudge?"

"She killed mama when she killed Julia. I will never forgive her," I replied, contempt clearly in my voice.

"Please play nice tomorrow. I know you don't like either of them, but please at least be civil."

"Can't I just... disappear for the night and come back when it's done?" I asked hopefully.

"Nao," she said in her warning voice. "You're my girlfriend. You're very important to me. So, it's equally important to me that you and my friends get along."

I grumbled, not liking the idea of karaoke night. But in the end, I nodded slightly to tell her that I will be in attendance, like she wanted. Content with having persuaded me, Mai snuggled closer and slowly drifted off to sleep. I sighed to myself. _Yeah, totally not whipped._

Regardless, I vowed to make Mai happy. And I'm going to do just that. Even if it means doing something with her that I absolutely hate. Like playing nice with that stupid mutt and her murderer of a girlfriend.

* * *

And there you have it, MaiNao fluff. xDD

I wonder how many of you thought, "I wonder how Mai tamed Nao..." as you read this. Raise your hand. :3

Thoughts? Comments? Questions? Concerns? Leave me a note. Please & thank you. :)


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